PRAYING MANTIDS OF THE UNITED STATES, NATIVE 

 AND INTRODUCED^ 



By AsHLET B. Gurnet 



Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 

 Agricultural Research Administration, United States Department of Agriculture 



(With plates] 



A person encountering a praying mantid for the first time usually 

 does so in one of two ways. He maj' unexpectedly discover a large 

 striking insect, late in summer or in fall, climbing over garden 

 shrubbery or perching near a blossom waiting for a meal to appear 

 in the form of some unlucky insect. Or perhaps he will see a mantid 

 on the side of a house, or find one near a window that was brightly 

 lighted the previous evening. The second type of encounter usually 

 follows the discovery of a light-brownish fibrous object attached to 

 vegetation, a fence post, or other support, during fall or winter. 

 Thinking it to be the cocoon of a moth, the budding naturalist may 

 take it indoors to witness the emergence. A few weeks later he will 

 be astounded to find that a hundred or more small crawling insects, 

 each with perfectly developed "praying" front legs, but without wings, 

 have emerged. If the mantid egg cases are not confined in a jar or 

 other container, the young mantids may not be noticed until a dis- 

 concerted housewife finds them crawling up curtains and on the 

 ceiling. 



At any one locality in the United States only a very few kinds or 

 species of mantids occur, and often there is only one, while some of 

 the more northern parts have none at all. Altogether, 19 kinds of 

 mantids are known to occur in the United States, most of them in- 

 habiting the Southern States. Careful collecting and close study of 

 museum specimens may eventually show that we have somewhat more 

 than 19 kinds. In tropical countries new species are continually 

 being found and given scientific names for the first time. Through- 

 out the world, there are more than 1,500 species, most of which are 

 tropical or subtropical in distribution, and so within the United 

 States we have merely a northern fringe of a great subtropical group. 



1 Photographs by Edwin Way Teale are from Grassroot Jungles (Dodd, Moad & Co., 1937) and are here 

 published by the kind permission of Mr. Teale. Photographs by John Q. Pitkin are published with his 

 permission. The specimen of Mantoida illustrated was lent by the Maseum of Zoology, University of 

 Michigan, through the courtesy of Dr. T. H. Hubbell. This and other preserved specimens were photo- 

 graphed at the Smithsonian Institution by Floyd B. Kestner. 



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